UK rations question

[housil]

Thx for this!

[rik_uk3]

Personally, i've always wondered what the difference between a "tommy cooker" and an esbit stove was.

Left you see my (never used) UK "Tommy Cooker" vs.

TC4.jpg

right my (often used) German "ESBIT" cooker.

As rationtin440 mentioned, the name "ESBIT" is for the company that made them, starting in 1936.
So "ESBIT" is for: Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform" (= Erich Schumms fuel in tablets shape)

I can´t recall from where I got mine from... I´m just sure he didn´t come with any ration.

TC1.jpg

TC2.jpg

Outer package with instructions

The fuel tablets come in a waxed box

TC3.jpg

Do the UKs have a canteen cup that fit´s in this opening?

Yes the Crusader mug, stainless steel, good kit. They have recently modified the Crusader system, the 'stove' was crap and the new mug is IIRC now made from aluminium.

[Cede Nullis]

From my service in the British Army 1983 to 1998, the cooker was issued separately from the rations. As a rule of thumb I was issued one pack of Hexamine fuel tablets per ration (8 tablets per pack if memory serves) some times depending on availability it came with the metal folding stand for every ration but most of the time one mettle stand with tablets and 2 or 3 refill packs of fuel. The stoves and the refill packs came in separate wooden crates. The mess tins and black mugs were used well into the late 1990's.

Back in the 1980's when we only had 4 menus in the old 24 hour tinned rations , I used an 1944 patten aluminium mug to cook and brew up in. I had to buy this myself from a surplus store, you did not need as much water to cover a tin in this mug as you did in the mess tin to heat you food and there was enough room to make an "all in stew" at a push. I mostly used it for making a hot drinks. I still have the mug, water bottle and webbing pouch for this in the attic, must dig it out and post a photo.

Andy

[Norton]

Cede Nullis

Thank you for your post it has the small historical details that are very interesting to me and many others. Please dig out the web gear and post the photo.

A small note you may find interesting. When I went to Basic Training in 1979 the term 'Web Gear' was the normal term for the H style pistol belt, suspender, butt pack and M 14/16 rifle magazine pouches . Latter as year went by the term LBE became the normal term.

[rationtin440]

Thanks for replies Cede and everyone else, as for web gear----all my friends I served with think I'm nuts but I always thought the British PLCE from the 1980s was better than American gear, and the DPM pattern uniforms looked way cooler than our stuff as well.